Are Merchants Supposed To Be Supplying Affiliates With Free Samples?

Like you mentioned, most of the time the affiliates just purchase the product and receive commission on it instead of going through the hastle of asking for a free copy.

Although you do make a good point and it's always worth a try (or an email). So just email the merchant and ask him if you can have a free copy, telling him that it will increase your sales.

It depends what you mean by "should", and "supposed". It's up to them, isn't it? Some get people asking for freebies all the time, and often the way they ask doesn't inspire any confidence that they'll manage to make any sales of the product.

Some have products/services which are clearly far too expensive and valuable (even at cost price) for them to be expected to do this.

On ClickBank, some vendors also take the view that since affiliates can perfectly legitimately buy through their own hoplinks anyway, they have no need to give out free copies.

But generally, I think it depends how you ask.

For a lot of what I promote, I've found this very often works (and it isn't limited to ClickBank, in spite of the thread's title): http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post3641838

Prove that you are an affiliate worth their time, and most will be happy to provide you with a review copy IF it is a product they can give without loss. Alexa's post (http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post3641838) is spot on! That should be printed out and read any time you feel you need to ask for a review copy of anything.

I've never had a merchant reject sending me a sample (or the full thing) if I proved to them I'm a legit affiliate. Worse case they can do is say no and you can then just buy it thru your affiliate link.

A JV partner that has a proven track record, yes. An affiliate, not really.

but what if merchant gives samples but affiliates dont do their jobs ?

I'm sure if you are a BIG FISH affiliate then yes you would most likely get a free copy and then some. But if you are just the average affiliate then owners run the risk of people becoming affiliates just to get it for free. If you are an affiliate and are serious to make a name for yourself then you should not be worried about buying a copy of many products you might possibly promote.

When I was doing a lot of affiliate marketing I would often ask for a review copy for certain types of products. I would simply send the owner of the product an email and ask for it.


In the email, I would simply introduce myself, and write a simple request that went something like this:


"Hi, my name is "so-and-so" and I am an Affiliate Marketer. I found your product's affiliate program on "such-and-such' site. From the description of your product, I think it has a lot of potential. I would like to set-up a review style of campaign to promote your product.

I intend to use various methods of both free, and paid traffic to promote your product. I usually like to create a video about the products I promote as I've found the conversion rate to be a lot higher when a video is used. In order to be more convincing, I prefer to have first hand knowledge of the product I review. When conveyed correctly in the video, this "first hand" knowledge tends to convert my visitors at a much higher percentage. So, I would like to ask you for temporary access to your product so that I can create a high-converting video review of same.

Thank you very much for your time.
I'm looking forward to hearing back from you and doing business with you."


So far, I've never been turned down with this type of approach. I believe the reason I've been so successful is because, first of all, telling them where you found the Affiliate Program for their product indicates that you truly are an affiliate marketer. Second, by mentioning the particular methods you are going to use to promote his or her product shows that you are very serious about making a real review. And finally, by asking for "temporary access" you are making it sound like you are not just trying to get a freebie from him.


And to finally clinch the deal, I also give him a link to one of my review sites to show him what my work looks like, including the video review.


The first time I tried this method, I actually bought a review for a different product first. Then I set up a video review for that other product so I had something to show to the first guy I was asking for a free copy from. It worked like a charm.